Feldon SOE.com has been updated with a new Recent Updates section which answers a few questions, although there are few concrete answers at this point. Also, according to a Facebook update, the $10 discount on Fan Faire registration will be extended due to the service outage.
May 4, 2011
We want to thank you again for your patience as we work to get the SOE services back up and running. We received several questions and comments relating to the criminal attack to our network and would like to address some of the most common questions today. We are also going to continue to post updates to this website with new information as they become available.
We appreciate your continued patience and feedback.
Thank you,
Sony Online Entertainment
When will SOE’s services be back online?
We have been working around the clock to restore operations as quickly as possible, and we expect to have some of our games and services up and running soon. However, we want to be very clear that we will only restore operations when we believe that the network is secure.How is the SOE intrusion related to the PSN/Qriocity intrusion? Was this a second attack on SOE?
While the two systems are distinct and operated separately, given that they are both under the Sony umbrella, there is some degree of overlap in design. The attacks were similar in nature. This is NOT a second attack; new information has been discovered as part of our ongoing investigation into the criminal attack in April.How is SOE planning to notify customers whose data may have been stolen?
We are sending out customer service notification emails to the email addresses we have on file for the accounts that were affected. These emails will be sent by Innovyx, our third party email distributor, and contained either ‘soe.innovyx.net’ or ‘soe.sony.com’ in the sender field.SOE initially thought no data was extracted, what changed?
Essentially the perpetrators used sophisticated means not only to access the data, but also to cover their tracks. We committed to continue the investigation and in doing so, uncovered further information that we did not have when we initially believed the data was not stolen.
and that Facebook update regarding Fan Faire early bird registration:
Due to SOE websites and services being unavailable, we will extend the SOE Fan Faire Early Bird registration. Stay tuned for additional details!
Basically two “new” bits of info they’d already shared, another “Still no timeline”, and an explanation of why the story changed on data extraction.
I guess at least they recognized they should give us some sort of tidbit of info.
So, what I said on the forums when this first broke was spot on.
(yay me)
They extended the $10.00 discount!!! How magnanimous of them!
Oh, and we get to stay tuned for additional details as well!!! Hooray! For a minute there I was scared because I thought they would give us real facts and information, which would have required me to think, and we wouldn’t want me to go there! No sir! I would much rather be in the dark, me and the other 250K+ subscribers, who have been members of the norath faithful going on ten years. Yes, much rather be in the dark!
Sony is not obligated to feed the subscribers complete information regarding an ongoing investigation. Even if they did, what can you do about it?
Withholding their strategies may be crucial to success.
Posting a timeline would be foolish. Why rush them to re-open services if they have not had enough time to make sure that the sites are secure and look for any other possible areas that can be breeched? First, they have to find out where any weak points are, and then find ways to make them as secure as humanly possible. If they rush and don’t do a very good job and another problem pops up, people will complain that they didn’t bother to take the time to get a real fix for the existing problems.
Hackers know how to create security systems and how to break into them. Sony did not invite them in to steal player credit card information or anything else.
To blame Sony is the same as blaming a bank manager and bank officers because the bank was robbed, or a store owner and the employees because the store was robbed.
You put security into place. It looks good. It works. Technology advances, and someone who can Create your security system and possibly even stronger systems breaks in. How can you prevent that? You can’t.
Security Systems are created by security experts. You don’t have to be honorable to learn how to be a security expert and learn how to both create and violate security systems.
If you don’t like Sony, the best thing to do to retaliate is to hurt them in their pocketbook by not purchasing any of their products and to cancel any subscriptions you have with them.
The rest of us will have more uncontested resources when we get back into the games.
I don’t think anyone is looking for them to open the servers prematurely, but honestly the lack of communication with their customer is rather shocking.
If I was a senior producer, I would have a blog where I could communicate directly with the players. Even if I couldn’t comment on the ongoing events directly, I would still post daily (at least) on the other things the developers are working on. I can hardly think the dev’s are all idle, and I’m certain they are taking advantage of this downtime.
They could try to spin at least that portion as being a positive for the health of the games, but instead we get a one sentence facebook note saying the servers won’t come up today, which was posted at 1AM EST. I think we figured that part out already, thanks for the tip though.
I do not see why they couldn’t let us play the games for free while they are fixing the credit card issue.
After all it doesn’t require credit card information in order to run the games.
let us play for free!